Mykelti Brown says her decision to open up for the first time about a painful incident that occurred during her childhood has been met with backlash from both her family and TLC, the network that airs the Browns’ show ‘Sister Wives.’
In a recent appearance to her Patreon account, Mykelti stated that TLC was unhappy about an interview she did earlier this month with the Cults to Consciousness podcast, in which she revealed publicly for the first time that she was molested as a child by a neighbor kid. She also stated during the interview that she was punished when she told her parents what had happened, due to the Brown Family’s strict “no tattle-telling” policy, something she credited her dad’s fourth wife Robyn for dismantling when she came into the family.
“I genuinely thought it was a very good podcast,” Mykelti said on Patreon, before going on to state that the network (and her family) apparently does not seem to share those sentiments.
“Here’s the bad part though: the show, the powers that be, the network, TLC, whatever, essentially got wind through these articles [written about my interview], and now [my husband] Tony and I are under a microscope. Because they’re like, ‘OK, this makes us look bad. We don’t look good. This could hurt our reputation. We need to protect ourselves.'”
During the Patreon post, Mykelti indicated that she was not happy about how the interview was written about in the press.
“There was a situation that happened and I briefly kind of gave a peek-a-boo of the situation without giving specifics but essentially something happened to me when I was younger that is deeply personal, something super-traumatic and I got in trouble for it, and I got blamed for it by my parents,” she explained. “And it wouldn’t have happened had we been more allowed [to talk about] other things. Anyway, I won’t get into details because I’m not really emotionally mature or ready or whatever to really talk about it.”
Mykelti stated that there were “two separate points” she was trying to make during her interview, one of which was the importance of kids being able to talk to their parents about anything that happens to them. Mykelti claims that news outlets took “two separate events and combined them into one and ran with it,” resulting in her getting in trouble with TLC.
(Just to note here— The Ashley stands by the story she wrote about Mykelti’s interview. Mykelti willingly brought up—unprovoked— the alleged sexual assault while on the public podcast, and her words were not taken out of context in any way, nor was anything added to what she said herself during the interview.)
During the original podcast, The Ashley reported what Mykelti told the podcast host about the Brown Family’s anti-tattling policy, which is as follows: “I think it created a lot of issues with us kids not telling our parents the truth and not wanting to come to them when things actually needed to be told. Like, ‘hey, this neighbor kid touched me on my private parts.’ What kid is going to go tell their parents if they’re worried that they’re going to get in more trouble? That was a big thing growing up and that, like, traumatized me, was tattle-telling.”
When the podcast’s host, Shelise Ann Sola, asked Mykelti if the story about the neighbor kid inappropriately touching her was something that actually happened, Mykelti confirmed that it did.
“There is an experience that happened to me. I’m not quite emotionally healed enough and ready to talk about it, but there is an experience where I went and I told my parents and I got in trouble,” she said. “So, that is speaking from— this actually happened.”
It appears that Mykelti didn’t expect the story to get as much traction as it did in the press, as she stated it’s “hard” to have the story “all over.” She also claimed that articles written about what she said are “taking away my voice” and “manipulating it.”
Anyway, Mykelti also implied that members of her family still associated with ‘Sister Wives’ may be catching flak for what she said.
“It’s kind of spiraling into a big thing with my family, with the powers, with the show, all of it,” she said.
“So, there’s a lot of like, internal drama and stuff going on, but essentially, my head space has been in a very, like, chaotic, confused, emotionally vulnerable space this week, so I’ve been a little bit out, I guess.”
She ended the segment by stating that she hopes “it just all blows over.”
Click here to watch Mykelti’s full interview with Cults to Consciousness.
(Photos: TLC)
2 Responses
“I was on a TLC reality show about my family for years and the show had many controversial moments discussed at length in the media but I had no idea admitting I was harmed in this way would gain media attention.” What?
Stay off social media if you don’t want to be criticized. Live your life, and stop begging for attention.